Point Break

ARGYLE goal hero Ryan Brunt believes the Pilgrims’ unexpectedly short flirtation with this season’s FA Cup will give them a welcome break...

...even though he cannot wait to get on the training-ground every day.

Ryan’s stunning late equaliser in Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Dagenham & Redbridge came with virtually the last kick before a fortnight hiatus until Cambridge visit Home Park on December 12, a week after FA Cup second-round day.

It will give the Pilgrims an opportunity to draw breath and to get back some of their injured players whose absence has been a contributory factor to some bad results that has seen them toppled from their perch atop Sky Bet League 2.

“We’ve probably lost the spine of the team, to be honest,” said Ryan, “which is not great in any team. It’s frustrating because, although we’ve got through it, we have not got the results we would have liked with the roll we were on.

“It’s come at the right time, before Christmas, and hopefully we can turn it round and keep pushing like we were before.

“Sometimes, when you are leading, you are looking back all the time. Now we have to put our foot on the gas and keep going. We need to be in and around the top three.

“We can’t get ahead of ourselves – where we’ve come from and where we are: we have got a fairly new squad; most of the players are new this season; the way we have gelled is phenomenal – but we have really got to push on now.”

Brunty believes the spirit at Home Park will serve the Pilgrims well for the second half of the season.

He said: “Looking at all the individuals, we’ve got personalities, we’ve got characters, but they’re all down-to-earth solid people and it takes a lot of doing to get a squad like that. Everyone gets on. All the strikers are competing for a place but are all working with each other every day.

“It’s a club where it’s nice to be at the moment. I’ve been at clubs where it’s not nice to be. That sounds horrible, but we want to go into training and we want to do better for ourselves every day.”